The Contest is over…

Congratulations to Colleen T! She has just won the ASW Reading, Writing, and Study Skills Program!

Dyslexia Program Helps Students with Learning Reading

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET has put together over 40 years of experience as a learning disability, dyslexia, and ADHD specialist and designed a reading, writing, and study skills dyslexia program that you as parents can use with your kids to improve their skills. She teaches you every step of the way via video lessons. She also provides you with the books you’ll need to implement the program. The program was designed specifically with kids that struggle with learning reading. Some of the students successfully using the program have an identified learning disability or dyslexia, others are ‘falling through the cracks’ so to speak. Learning reading has always been a bit of a struggle. Others want to get a boost up.

Bonnie not only believes, but has seen all students improve their skills. You’ll typically see some improvement within 3 days of starting the program and other improvement within 3 weeks.

Who is the ASW Reading, Writing, and Study Skills Dyslexia Program for?

Bonnie has always taught students from kindergarten through adults. As a result, every Awaken the Scholar Within Program that she has designed is for multiple ages and abilities. This program is for moms and dads or grandparents that want to help their 1st graders through high school kids. It is also for adults wanting to improve their own skills. In fact, many of those that have already worked the program (about 50%) are adults doing the program for themselves.

(1st – adults)

What parents say about the dyslexia program…

“My son was repeating first grade. By chance I ran across Bonnie’s website and read about the Awaken the Scholar Within Reading & Writing Program. I called Bonnie and we must have talked for at least 30 minutes. I signed up immediately. Within weeks Caleb was making progress. I’m so glad I found this dyslexia program!”

Halloween, Sugar and ADHD Kids

Does all the Halloween candy really trigger ADHD kids to have meltdowns?

Halloween is just around the corner…which means all that extra sugar that kids aren’t accustomed to. If your kids are anything like mine, they really look forward to trick-or-treating…going out with their group of friends, with a parent discreetly behind them. It is always one of the high points of the fall season.

Once my kids got home, they couldn’t wait to show off the amount of candy they got. I knew from past experience that too much sugar didn’t agree with my kids. They would either have a stomach ache or get irritable. I always figured it was the sugar causing it, and it was, but not in the way I thought.

One of my ADHD kids would always get particularly affected by all the Halloween candy. We had previously found that beyond sugar, he was affected by the red dye in jello and other foods. So we were already monitoring his regular diet and then learned to watch even more carefully with all the Halloween treats. I was particularly surprised when I found the results of studies related to sugar and ADHD.

What Studies Say About Sugar and ADHD

Study after study from the 1970’s to 2014 states that sugar does not cause hyperactivity. In fact, studies show that small amounts of sugar can actually have a healthy place in a child’s diet. A small amount, like a ¼ to ½ teaspoon in an ounce of water has been known to soothe a fussy baby. The key here is the amount of sugar. The reason for the irritability and stomach aches was not sugar per se, but the quantity of sugar they ingested. ADHD kids and kids in general often eat (or drink) too much sugar, especially on Halloween. (Too much of anything typically isn’t good for you!)

Chemically, What Does Sugar Do?

We need to look at what happens to the body when you eat sweets. When sugar from sweets enters the bloodstream and reaches the brain, it temporarily increases the levels of several neuro-chemicals. These neuro-chemicals, such as serotonin, actually calm the body in normal levels. However, when your body takes in too much sugar, the blood-sugar rises quickly, creates a corresponding large amount of insulin to manage the large amounts of sugar consumed. The insulin moves the sugar from of the blood into the body’s cells. Blood-sugar then drops, and you can end up feeling shaky or irritable, and may even get a tummy ache.

Advice for a Calmer Halloween for ADHD Kids

So what we need to do is watch how much candy (sugar) our ADHD kids eat – the intake – to keep blood-sugar levels more consistent. Do this by controlling portion size, drinking water instead of fruit juices, and eating protein (cheese beans, meat, or nuts) and fiber (vegetables and whole grains) along with sweets. These actions help regulate sugar absorption, leveling the rise and fall of blood sugar levels.
Remember, though, that sugar-rich foods are typically full of empty calories that tend to displace the foods that are high in nutrition. Even though studies show that sugar does not directly cause hyperactivity, a high sugar intake does not feed the body nutritiously.

Halloween ADHD Kids Action Steps

The quick solution to maintaining blood sugar levels and preventing the shaky feelings and irritable behavior:

Control sugar portion size

Drink water

Eat protein (cheese, meat, or nuts)

Eat fiber (vegetables and whole grains)

You might even take some cheese sticks and or nuts with you to much on during the trick-or-treating…to prevent some of the affect of all that sugar!

Learning Can Become Easier!

5-Steps to Turning a Learning Disadvantage into a Life-long Advantage

Turn learning disadvantages into life-long advantages…

Pat Wyman from HowToLearn.com is interviewing Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET and she has agreed to show you step-by-step exactly what to do to turn those learning disadvantages: reading problems, comprehension problems, writing problems, dyslexia, learning disabilities, and ADHD into life-long advantages. There is a 5-step process to do this and Bonnie will go over all 5-steps. You don’t want to miss out on this learning webinar!

Activities for Dyslexia, ADHD Kids, and More…

There will be specific activities that prove to you that your kids can learn – no matter what problems they are having! Bonnie will show specific ways to improve note-taking, writing skills, and memory skills. You will also understand how we learn – the 5 ways we take in information and what you can do to make learning easier! This is the year that learning can become easier! And, to make it easy for you, Bonnie and Pat will be offering this learning advantage webinar 4 times…so pick the time and date that is most convenient for you.

Looking forward to seeing you on the webinar! Only 100 participants each webinar time slot, so register now to reserve your spot!

And, while you are waiting to see the webinar…you may be interested in reading:

These are all symptoms of difficulty with just one area of auditory processing. And auditory processing is one of the most common areas impacted in kids or adults with learning disabilities.

There are 9 specific areas of auditory processing that impact learning in the following ways.

The good news is you can improve auditory processing skills with specific exercises and activities. And, you can do these activities with the whole family in just a few minutes and see everyone’s skills increase! It is a total win/win situation! These auditory skills can improve quite rapidly and learning can become so much easier when you do the simple activities.

Family Auditory Processing VAK Activity:

Sit in the back yard or front yard and listen to the sounds you hear. Write them down. How many sounds have you heard? Compare with each other the sounds everyone has heard. Then you can even categorize the sounds. Then go to another place: the park, river, soccer field, church, school yard, or mall and do the same. Compare and contrast the sounds in the different places.

What Do Parents Say About the Awaken the Scholar Within VAK Therapy Program:

“My son’s reading fluency has really improved and so has his spelling. He listens better too. Thanks so much!”

Kim M.

“Bonnie, I can’t thank you enough for this program. Your simple VAK activities have really made such a difference to our family. I’ve even noticed that my own skills are improving!”

Awaken the Scholar Within VAK Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic Therapy Program

This VAK Therapy Program is Designed for:

This program is specifically designed for those with learning disabilities, dyslexia, ADHD, other learning challenges, or those that just take too long to do their homework.

Remember, we take in information through our visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic systems (seeing, hearing, and doing). Each of those systems has nine subcategories. When one or more isn’t working as well as they could, should, and can, learning becomes more difficult than it needs to be. When you address those areas by doing specific activities and exercises, they become stronger and work more efficiently. This ultimately makes learning easier.

The tactile/kinesthetic system impacts learning in the following ways:

The activities in the program typically take any where from 3 minutes to 10 minutes. Each day (5-days a week) there are several exercises to do that can take up to 20 minutes a day. Many of the activities are ones you can do with the whole family. Some of the activities are paper and pencil activities. Other activities are movement activities such as specific bean bag toss activities. Doing these simple movement activities activates the brain so learning becomes easier.

And, while you’re waiting to hear if you are the lucky winner…check out our 4 other Awaken the Scholar Within Programs.

Kinesthetic Family Activity for you…

Go on a family walk or hike and see how many different items you can find that are the length of your thumb. Write them down and then compare and contrast what you found. (Little ones will find different items than mom or dad as their thumb is smaller.)

Don’t forget to head over to enter the contest and pass it on too! Every time you pass the contest on, your chances of winning goes up! Contest closes September 30th.

What Parents Say About the Program:

“Thanks so much Bonnie. You’ve done it again. I love all of your programs! This VAK therapy Program came as a surprise to us. I had no idea how these simple fun activities would work for us – but they sure did! Reading and writing is getting better already.”

Enter the Awaken the Scholar Within contest and Improve Auditory Processing Skills

What if… You found a learning disability solution that is not just another quick fix?? What if… This school year, you learned to help your child gain new skills and become a better student and learning became easier???

In my last post I wrote about how we take in information through the senses: visual processing, auditory processing, and kinesthetic processing. When your visual, auditory, and tactile kinesthetic systems are working well, learning becomes easier. Just as visual processing is more than seeing, auditory processing is more than the ability to hear.

Auditory processing

Auditory processing is the ability to use what you hear, to make sense of it, organize it, use it, and learn from it. Those that have difficulties with auditory processing might be poor listeners and have difficulty remembering or understanding verbal information, directions, and/or lectures. Auditory processing directly impacts the following areas of learning.

Symptoms of Auditory Processing Problems

Kids and adults with auditory problems or CAPD may have difficulty with:

The good news in all of this is that these are learned skills, and they can be improved. With specific exercises and activities, the auditory system can be improved, which then improves learning. These exercises are like gymnastics for the auditory (hearing) system. They improve your abilities in phonemic awareness, word attack skills, spelling, word recognition, comprehension, and more.

Enter the Awaken the Scholar Within VAK Therapy Program Contest

Another piece of news, you can now enter Bonnie Terry Learning’s Awaken the Scholar Within VAK Therapy Program contest and have a chance at winning the $797 program for free. This program includes visual, auditory, and kinesthetic therapy to improve the 27 areas of learning.

Auditory Processing Family Activity

And, for a fun family activity that improves listening skills…do an “Add-On Story”, where one person starts the story and each subsequent person adds on to it. The story can be silly but does need to make sense. Watch Bonnie on the video for more on this.

When you think about how we learn and realize that everyone learns through the senses, it makes sense that this is so. We all take in information by tasting, smelling, hearing, seeing, and doing, even if you have dyslexia, ADHD, autistic spectrum, or auditory processing problems. When you have dyslexic kids or ADHD kids that struggle with learning, it is due to one or more areas of auditory, visual, or tactile/kinesthetic processing not working as well as they should, could, and can. These visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic (VAK) skills are learned skills and they can be improved!

So, if you were to target these VAK skills and improve them, learning becomes easier. Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET has recently put together all of the VAK exercises and activities that target 27 areas of perception and make stronger neuropathways and connections in the brain. (She’s been using these activities and exercises for well over 35 years with her students and many others have already taken the program and improved with it.)

This compilation of activities and exercises is what the Awaken the Scholar Within VAK Therapy Program is.These specially designed activities, over time and repetition, ultimately create large neuro-networks which makes learning everything easier. The stronger these neuropathways become, the faster the information travels and is processed. When your visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic processing systems are functioning well, your whole brain functions better, and learning becomes easier.

Bonnie states, “I’m so excited to finally make this ASW VAK Therapy Program available, I’m going to give one away. I’ve never done this before, but all of the clients that have already worked the program have made such tremendous progress I decided I just had to give one program away for free.”

What parents of dyslexic kids and ADHD kids say…

“I have 4 kids, and three of them struggle. One struggles with reading and spelling, one just struggles with spelling, and the third one struggles with reading and writing. I knew something was not working right for them. I knew they were smart, but everything just seemed so hard. I had no idea that I could actually help them to learn with ease. It was a day that changed our lives when I talked with Bonnie and found that doing some simple activities could make learning so much easier! The ASW VAK program provides you with video lessons and the reading fluency program too. Those lessons made all the difference to our family. My kids loved doing the activities Bonnie showed us. We all had fun doing them and the best part is that my kids skills improved! Thank you for creating this VAK learning skills program!”

Therese V, Parent NC

“My daughter was struggling in 5th grade…I had heard about different kinds of therapy and didn’t quite understand how or why it would work. Then I spoke with Bonnie. She explained everything in a way that I really got it. So I started my daughter in the program. We saw progress in some areas in just a few days and homework time soon became easier too. Thanks Bonnie!!!”

Kara B, Parent, Il

“My son had been struggling with everything. I met you at a conference and you explained step-by-step what I could do to help him. I’m so glad I took your advice and started him with the VAK Therapy Program. It has made such a difference. now I’m getting ready to do your ASW Reading, Writing, and Study Skills Program. After the VAK Program working so well, I know I can do it and my son will just keep on improving. You have not only given us hope, you’ve also given us success. Thanks so much!”

Does Rapid Naming Have Anything to Do With Dyslexia Symptoms?

In a word, yes, rapid naming directly impacts dyslexia symptoms. The ability to process information quickly directly impacts reading success. Problems with rapid naming lead to slower processing speeds. Two of the questions experts always ask regarding dyslexia symptoms is: “Does your child take too long to do their work? Do they skip or repeat words when reading aloud? These two questions are directly related to the ability to quickly retrieve information.

What Is Rapid Naming and Why Is It Important?

Studies have shown that children with reading deficits perform more slowly than children without reading difficulties on tasks that measure speed of processing. Almost three decades of research with the Rapid Automatized Naming Test (RAN) have demonstrated that the majority of children and adults with reading difficulties have pronounced difficulties when asked to name rapidly the most familiar symbols and stimuli in the language: letters, numbers, colors, and similar objects. This ability of automatically rapid naming is another aspect of phonologic processing. It is the phonologic access, the ability to retrieve easily and rapidly verbal (phonetic) information that is held in one’s long-term memory. This ability to retrieve the stored information rapidly is directly related to the type of process that one goes through when they are reading. A child or adult must be able to access and retrieve the stored phonemes and/or word or word chunks that are stored on their memory at a quick rate in order to make sense of the written word.

Difficulty with rapidly automatically naming a series of objects, numbers, letters, or colors shows that reading difficulties are not just a difficulty with the phonological process (phonemic awareness). When the phonological component was taken out of the test, the speed-of-processing or accessing the information emerged as a stronger predictor of reading performance than phonological awareness tasks were.

From these studies we can conclude that there are several areas that need to be addressed when working to improve reading skills. Phonological awareness and processing is one subset of the multiple processes involved in reading, but it is not the only process involved. Visual naming of objects, letters, numbers, and colors represents an array of other skills that are involved with successful reading. These other skills include attentional, perceptual, conceptual, memory, lexical, and visual sequential processing.

Snyder and Downey (1995) report from the Denver Reading Study that the accuracy rates of those with reading difficulties and of those with normal achieving readers were not significantly different. The only significant difference noted was the reaction time and production duration; the readers with reading difficulties has significantly longer reaction times and production durations.

Solutions to Reading Fluency and Rapid Naming

The good news is that rapid naming practice alleviates several dyslexia symptoms quite rapidly. Studies from the University of Fl have shown that short sessions are over a period of several days are more effective than long sessions.

Stay tuned for Part 2: Dyslexia Symptoms Can Be Impacted by Two Separate Processes

Improve Reading and Writing Skills with Family Activities

The Nation’s Report Card shows most school-age kids reading below grade level, which is a huge problem for learning. Fortunately, there are some simple solutions available to families to help their children read as well as they could, should, and can.

I know that when your kids are struggling with reading, life is more difficult than it needs to be, both for them and for your whole family. You may even be losing sleep not knowing what you can do to help your struggling reader. What if you could do some simple family activities to improve those reading skills? Your whole family education would improve, because when one or more of your kids struggles, life becomes hard for everyone.

Quick Family Activities Can and Do Improve Reading and Writing Skills

I get calls on a daily basis from parents all over the world wanting to know if there is something they can do to help their kids improve their reading and writing skills. I’ve been teaching kids how to improve their skills for well over 35 years. But this is a big problem and not just local. So after so many calls, I realized that I needed to do something to help parents help their kids themselves. So, after much thought, I’ve put together a 12 week step-by-step mp4 video and mp3 audio lesson program that teaches you precisely how to improve both reading skills and writing skills for your children. The lesson activities will help your kids become proficient with reading and writing. This program includes 3 live calls with me, Bonnie Terry, where you can get individual support and answers to your questions.

Two example family activities are below.

What Parents Say…

“Our lives changed once we started working with Bonnie! She is the answer to our prayers! My daughter made gains I had thought were impossible for her to make!”

Kim Elliott

“If your child is struggling, give Bonnie a call… doing what she says WORKS! The activities are EASY and really made a difference!”

Filled with simple activities that are easy for anyone to implement in just 15 to 20 minutes a day, this online ASW program was designed using proven, research-based techniques, strategies, and methods to improve reading, writing, and study skills.

Two Examples of the Numerous Family Educational Activities in the ASW Reading, Writing, & Study Skills Program

The first activity I’ll describe is an individual activity that you can do with your son or daughter in just 5 minutes several times a week, to get tremendous results. If you are an adult, you can do a variation of this activity by yourself, to improve your own reading skills. The second activity is a whole family activity that improves writing, comprehension, and memory skills.

Activity 1

We use our Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills to improve reading fluency. This is the number one activity that parents can do to help their kids improve reading skills. And yes…it only takes 5 minutes a day. In fact, research has shown that working 5 minutes every day gets better results than 30 minutes fluency practice three times a week. The short, daily practice done on a regular basis makes the difference.

This graphic shows the improvement from using Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills on a regular basis. You can see the words per minute rising (in blue) and the mistakes per minute falling (in red). Use this easy activity to help your child improve reading fluency.

Activity 2

Many of your regular activities and outings can also be used for learning. When you go to the store or the park with your kids, be observant. Look at the surroundings, look at the colors, shapes, sizes, items or/and people you see. Talk about them. Did you see the…? Think about the first thing you did and the last thing you did. What was the first item you bought? Did you find everything that was on your list? THEN, when you get home, as a family, write down what you did and what your favorite part was…Use the graphic organizer fill-in-the-blank forms from our Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills; this book will make this very easy. Then, put your ‘stories’ about your trip into a family memory book. This activity builds comprehension, writing, reading, auditory memory, and visual memory skills.

You can learn how to turn family activities into fun learning activities that improve reading, writing, and study skills! It is the process that we use that makes the difference. The step-by-step instruction in the video lessons makes the difference and ultimately improves the skills.

The Awaken the Scholar Within Reading, Writing, & Study Skills Program Includes the
Following Lessons and Materials…

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCETis a Learning Disability Specialist and Board Certified Educational Therapist with a Master’s Degree in Education. Ms. Terry helps parents identify, understand, and address the underlying causes of their child’s learning problems. Dyslexic, LD and ADHD kids advance 2-4 years in 20 minutes a day with Ms. Terry’s Awaken the Scholar Within Programs and her books, games, and guides at BonnieTerryLearning.com Terry is an expert with fun learning activities for those with learning challenges.

Using Colored Overlays Can Help Overcome Dyslexia Symptoms

‘Learning to read’ is a bit more complicated than those three words imply. The process of reading is involves many skills: perceiving the written symbols, recognizing that the symbols for letters have meaning and what sounds they represent, decoding them, and then at that point, applying language background, reasoning abilities, and intellectual abilities to finally assign meaning to the sets or groups of symbols (letters in each word).

What can you do to this process of learning to read to make it easier for kids who struggle with dyslexia?

Today, I want to describe one facet of a two-pronged approach we use to help kids with dyslexia improve their reading and learning skills. We begin by investigating some physical effects that can happen with reading challenges:

Start By Asking These Questions:

When you read, is it comfortable or is it painful?

Do you get headaches from reading?

Do you get nauseous?

Do you get sleepy or drowsy from reading?

Do the words seem to move?

Are the words blurry?

Anyone reading for hours on end or working at the computer extensively can experience tired and strained eyes. I know I do! So if that happens for many of us – just using our eyes for reading extensively, you can bet it happens for kids with dyslexia symptoms who struggle with reading.

Here is where a specific tool I’ve found over the years comes in. I have used colored overlays to help address dyslexia symptoms with many of my students.

Colored overlays:

Make it more comfortable for you to read.

Help your eyes to be in a more relaxed state, making reading easier.

Reduce distortions of print that some with reading problems face

Improve reading stamina

Improve comprehension, because you are able to read more text and make connections in one sitting

Pairing the use of colored overlays with Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills actually improves reading fluency faster than without using the overlays. Use of overlays often allows a struggling reader to perceive words on the page more consistently.

My favorite colored transparencies are of the highest quality. They are thick and sturdy vs. most others that are thin and break easily. These can also be cut into smaller sizes to use with smaller books.

Using colored transparencies in conjunction with the Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills gives you the advantage of using a quick system that improves reading fluency, in only 5 minutes per day. You can also see your daily progress using the included scoring mechanism.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCETis a Learning Disabilities Specialist and Board Certified Educational Therapist. Ms. Terry helps parents identify, understand, and address the underlying causes of their child’s learning problems. Dyslexic, LD and ADHD kids advance 2-4 years in 20 minutes a day with Ms. Terry’s books, games, and guides at BonnieTerryLearning.com. Terry is an expert with quick learning activities for those with learning challenges.